Chapter 1: Tending the Flower Garden

An example of Nepal Television’s live dohori competition program Lok Lahari, featuring Rita Thapa Magar and Pashupati Sharma, in a mid-western hills genre known in the music industry as roila (in rural areas and among older folks, more accurately kheli git, or “playing song”):

An example of Badri Pangeni’s program for Image Channel, Khelau Dohori, featuring the song Suki Sakyo Kholi Kahare (The Flash Flood’s Already Dried Up). One of the side singers on the women’s team is Srijana Gurung, featured in Chapter Two. The leader of the women’s team is Goma Chhetri, and the first female singer to introduce herself, unlisted on YouTube, is Alaichi Gurung. Male singers Rajesh Adhikari, Prem, and Buddhi Pariyar. While Badri would usually introduce the instrumentalists, that part appears not to be in this video; one of the madal players is comedian Kamal Gaunle, and the flute player is Ram Kumar Singh.

A playlist of all of Jayananada Lama’s hit songs (mostly solo lok git) from Music Nepal.

Babari Phoolko Bot [Babari Flower], from Music Nepal, by Pandav Sunuwar and others. This was the song used for the 2nd annual dohori competition run by the Ministry of Education and Sports. I don’t have a recording of the first one, Sarara, Yo Man Dharara [Sarara, This Heart Weeps].

Paanko Paat [Paan Leaf]. This is Prem Raja Mahat’s hit song, again from Music Nepal, that signaled the rise of dohori in the music industry.

Sayau Thunga Phoolko [A Garland of Hundreds of Flowers], Nepali national anthem as of 2008. This version is produced by Almoda Rana Uprety and features students from the School for the Deaf, along with my close friend Rubin Kumar Shrestha on flute and Prince Nepali on sarangi, in a recording aimed at highlighting the disproportionate impact of the 2015 earthquake on the disabled. There are dozens of other versions online.